ID Magazine gets a new life as cool as its old life

On a Monday evening in Paris, Carly Cross and fashion designer Rick Owens were reminiscing about their first meeting. Cross said her mother took her to the fitting 17 years ago because she was fresh in modeling.

What's the difference in 10 and a half years? Today, Cross is sitting on Mount Rushmore, a model with a common name. Along with her husband, Joshua Kushner, she also runs Bedford Media, a fast-growing media conglomerate. It was his ability to reunite with Owens in the evening at the trail end of Paris Fashion Week.

Owens and his wife, Michelle Lamy, have offered Cross the left bank's maison of austerity for dinner to celebrate the renewal of the ID magazine purchased in 2023 by model-turned-mogul after the previous associate owner filed for bankruptcy.

“It's an extraordinary fashion history,” Cross said, as it is in a circle of champagne glasses. “I just didn't want it to die.”

The magazine's mission of ID's new editor, Thom Bettridge, said it was to restore “the spirit of things other than for now.”

First, founded by Terry Jones in 1980, ID was a sacred text of the indie fashion acolite generation. For a young designer, photographer, or model, receiving an ID feature was like a blessing to the Pope. Owens recalled that ID gave him one of his earliest profiles decades ago.

The first printed issue of Cross's overhaul ID includes the cover with model Naomi Campbell. Naomi Campbell and the first magazine cover were actually an ID issue from 1996, and Enza Cooley, a previously unknown 18-year-old high school student in Chuglyn Falls, Ohio, was selected from over 800 undiscovered visitors.

“We just wanted to stamp on completely new people the way Terry Jones used to do,” Betridge said.

The magazine flew Cooley and his father Adam to Paris for dinner. Wore a sleeveless Gucci dress (she chose her clothes from Options ID she was sure of for her), Khoury said she left her first country, not to mention parachutes during Paris Fashion Week. She was shocked by the cleanliness of the highway and the abundance of electric vehicles, she said. The next day she was attending a fashion show with her ID team Miu Miu and Kiko Kostadinov.

“It's incredibly beautiful,” Khoury said of her daughter's surreal European spin.

The other dinners weren't too new to the ID page, sitting in a throne-like chair of Mr. Owens' creation, sipping soup from a martini glass.

Juergen Teller, who photographed many ID covers, stood out from the goth-up guest in a pink t-shirt. (Chateau Owens appears to have an implicit dress code.)

Another contributor to past covers, German photographer Wolfgang Tillmans, was convened with Belgian artist Luc Tuymans, who filmed rapper SZA for the 2018 ID cover, and walked to the dining room with Benjamin Baron, Bro August Vestbo and designers from Buzzy Label All-in.

Mr. Jones was unable to attend the party, but his college granddaughter, Phoenix Rodin, was present. A new iteration of ID indicates that family blessings have been received.

Cross worked the room in a statuesque Rick Owens dress. “Can I sit in it?” asked Mr. Betridge. Ms. Cross assured him that she could and proved that it would become dinnertime.

During dinner, Owens was reclined on a bench made of felt human hair.

“There's a certain amount of gravity to print something,” Owens said of why he offered his home on the occasion. “Everything online is very fractured.”

The magazine talk was short because I was more interested in playing art in my own home.

For a few minutes, pausing just to say hello to the petite Miami rapper JT in a ritual Owens gown, the designer called the highlights of his incredible art collection. On the opposite wall was Georges Hoentschel's magnificent art nouveau ur. To his left was a Guernican-esque mural by his daughter Scarlett Rouge, with Ansel's suit on top that looked like a fossil. Around the corner was another Kiefer piece, Owens said, “Major, Major.”

In another room there was a tank filled with sperm from Gonzo Musician-Artist Tommy Cash. Still, the most outsized concrete graves of Mr. Owen's home were mediocre copy machines from a suburban business centre. Chez Owens is supposed to be a real live workspace.

After dinner, guests were filled up in the living room and found Rammy singing “You're so beautiful” with ASAP Rocky. As midnight approached, Mr. Owens fled from the second floor. It was bed time.